The Validity of Attributing Reports of the Unseen to God

If it is said regarding the reason for not qualifying the reporting (of the unseen) with “by God’s permission” that “creation and giving life can be attributed to God, but the work of Jesus (a.s.) and reporting news of the unseen, which is dependent on him, cannot be directly attributed to God,” the response is: First, just as the creation of all things and giving life to the dead is exclusively God’s in origin: “God is the creator of all things”,(404) and a contingent being can only become a “creator” or “life-giver” through God’s permission and by becoming a manifestation of the Creator or Life-giver, similarly, knowledge of the unseen is exclusively God’s in origin, and no one can be a knower of the unseen or a reporter of unseen news except by God’s permission and through manifestation. Thus, there is no difference between “reporting” and “creating and giving life.”

Secondly, in the verse under discussion, the healing of the blind and the leper, which is also a therapeutic work dependent on the servant, is qualified with “by God’s permission,” therefore reporting must also be qualified.

Thirdly, when actions lower than reporting are attributed to God, such as “You did not kill them; rather it was God who killed them; and you did not throw when you threw, rather it was God who threw”,(405) reporting can be attributed to God with even greater reason.

The Qur’an attributes reports of worldly unseen matters to God: “When the Prophet confided to one of his wives a matter, but when she divulged it, and God apprised him about it, he announced [to her] part of it and disregarded part of it. So when he told her about it, she said, ‘Who informed you about it?’ He said, ‘The All-knowing and the All-aware informed me’.”(406) When one of the Prophet’s (s.a.w.) wives asked who had reported this news to him, he said it was God, the All-knowing, the All-aware. Thus, reporting in worldly matters can be attributed to God.

Reports of the unseen matters of the hereafter are also attributed to God: “Say, ‘Indeed the death that you flee will indeed encounter you. Then you will be returned to the Knower of the sensible and the Unseen, and He will inform you about what you used to do’.”(407) God informs you about your deeds.

Fourth, the three arguments are sufficient to validate the attribution of reports of the unseen to God. However, the discussion is not about whether reporting can be attributed to God or not, but rather why reporting is not qualified with “by God’s permission.”